Weekly Training Update - 15 Weeks To Go

This is the first of what I hope will be weekly posts as I work through my training program for the Chicago Marathon on October 12.

First, some stats:

Week 2 target mileage: 32 milesWeek 2 actual mileage: 21 miles

Target cumulative miles through last week: 62 milesActual cumulative miles through last week: 55.2 milesVariance: (6.8) miles

Last week was a pretty big miss. As I mentioned here, I was fighting (am still fighting) a head cold that has affected my running. After sleeping 10 hours on Friday night (about 4 more than is typical for me) and waking up feeling like junk, I decided I could not face the day's scheduled 15 mile run.

Everything I've read so far suggests the weekly long run is the most critical part of a marathon training program; those runs are supposed to be sacred. I opted to take a sick day/mental health day in the interest of recovering more quickly and managed to make up some of the lost mileage by with a decent run on Sunday.

The week three schedule includes runs of 7, 7, 5, 3, and 12 miles. In spite of uncomfortable conditions yesterday, I managed to run 9 miles in Central Park, giving me a little mental victory as a way to start the week. I'm increasingly aware of the importance of the mental/psychological aspects of running all this distance. Halfway through yesterday's run I was thinking I'd just do one loop of the park, but then decided to go for the extra couple of miles; the overall run was pretty slow, but it left me with a sense of accomplishment and positive frame of mind for the week.

I had the extra pleasure yesterday of running into Chris (the friend with whom I will run Chicago) on the east side of the park - that was fun!